Monthly Archives: June 2011

I’m not sure how it works in the NBA, but in school or places of employment, your name partly determines where you fit in. No one clique ever really has two guys with the same name. Occasionally, there would be two dudes named Brett or something, but one of them always goes by a nickname or his last name.

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Let’s just get it out of the way now: I don’t follow college basketball. Every year, a new line of freshman enter the league and I think, “It would really be helpful if I knew anything about these guys.” Then a squirrel passes outside my window or a dust particle hitting the sunlight catches my eye and I’ve already forgotten what I was just thinking about.

Every once in a while when my DVR is empty and there are no dead cats in the alley for me to watch the raccoons chew on, I take a slow walk on over to my local post office and do a little pre-holiday shopping for my girlfriend.

As I peeled myself off the linoleum floor, sucked down the last few drops of last night’s Bitburger beer and licked the crusted schnitzel off my fingertips, the memories of last night’s NBA Finals celebration reignited in my mind. Dirk is a champion.

Nene Hilario led the league in FG% in 2010, but attempted just 40 percent of the shots Kobe Bryant did. Blake Griffin attempted 20 more free throws than Kevin Durant, but made 148 fewer than he did. Also, Dwight Howard’s FT% was just .003 percentage points higher than his FG% – and this was his best free throw-shooting season since he was a rookie.

Quality is a relative term. One man’s trash is another man’s trash that he treasures (or whatever). Your Member’s Only windbreaker and matching L.A. Gears were the bees knees two decades ago, but bury those things in a time capsule, dig them up today and hand them to a hobo, and there’s no WAY you’d be able to refrain from snickering at the guy.

Future Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal called it quits over Twitter (and eventually a proper press conference later today) after deciding his nearly 39-year-old body couldn’t withstand an achilles surgery and nine months of rehab. When Boston signed O’Neal a year ago, the strategy was that he’d play sparingly throughout the year and empty the tank on Dwight Howard in the spring if Kendrick Perkins didn’t return to 100 percent.

If there were a sixth man in the NBA who appeared in every one of the season’s 82 games, but was only on the floor about half the time throughout those contests despite averaging 13/5, with .541/.707 and more than a steal every time out, the first thing you’d say is, “Adam, why all the secrecy?